The present invention relates to a method and means for separately collecting tubular knit stockings and the waste ends therefrom after the stocking toe ends have been automatically closed in a manner that produces a short waste portion having been severed from the toe end of the stocking. A method and apparatus for closing the ends of tubular knit stockings by heat setting with a resulting severing of a short end of waste therefrom is disclosed in Boyer U.S. Pat. No. 4,069,090 which discloses clamps gathering the stocking fabric into a radially constricted substantially solid mass near the toe end of the stocking tube, and a hot severing and sealing element passing through the constricted fabric within the clamp to close the toe end and thereby sever a short piece of waste material at the toe end. After the severing and sealing operation, the aforesaid patent discloses that the clamp is opened to allow the closed end stocking and the waste to be sucked away to a collection station by a suction air current applied to the conduit conventionally located below the circular knitting head and the toe end closing clamp.
While the Boyer patent discloses an efficient and economical way of forming closed ends on tubular knit stockings, the stockings and waste end portions are collected together at the collection station, and they must be separated at a subsequent manual operation. Conventionally, the stockings and waste fabric would be collected together in bags in which they would be contained during further handling as during dyeing and drying operations, and subsequent tedious separation of the waste fabric from the stockings is required. Not only is the subsequent separating requirement a costly and time consuming disadvantage, but the small, button-like, heat-sealed portions of the waste fabric will rub on the fabric of the stockings during tumbling agitation or other manipulation during subsequent treatment, causing abrasions, picks and other defects, and the tail yarns on the waste fabric will snarl in or become entangled with the stockings during such manipulation and cause problems in the subsequent separation of the waste fabric from the stockings.
In contrast, the method and means of the present invention as more fully explained hereinbelow, provide a simple, efficient, reliable, and effective method and means for separating the closed end stockings from the waste fabric thereof immediately after severing so that the stockings will be treated separately from that point on without any opportunity for the waste fabric to damage the stockings or become entangled therewith. The stockings are collected in a container for handling through further operations, and the waste ends are collected in a container from which appropriate disposal may be made, thereby eliminating quality defects in the stockings, and also eliminating expensive manual operations in separating the waste from the stockings.